"As a parent myself, I'm designing these things and trying to do the best I can," Parker said.

The two architects and their colleagues spend hours trying to strike the right balance between student learning and safety.

"A lot of the learning environments that we see, they're becoming more like corporate environments, which focus on a high degree of visibility and exposure," Parker said. "That whole visibility thing is great, but it's less great if you're just trying to hunker down and protect everybody."

Donning a virtual reality headset and hand controllers, Dykes took a virtual tour of a campus that will be built for Winton Woods.

Viewing a multi-dimensional representation of the planned building, Dykes encountered large red locks, pointing to the influence of mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida.

"I see giant locks on these doors, indicating that I can't go anywhere," Dykes said.

Even if an attacker breached the interior doors, the school is designed to limit the damage by dividing the building into zones.

"When the school building becomes aware of a threat in a building, we're able to hit a button and those zones lock down," Parker said. "There's a, kind of a catch phrase, 'Buy five.' If we can buy five minutes it gives first responders time to get there and react."

Parker and Thackery know students don't pay much attention to how their classrooms are designed, which is fine, because that means they can focus on what matters most.

"Schools are about learning," Thackery said. "For a student to learn, they have to feel safe."

"In addition to working on new schools, SHP Leading Design helps renovate older buildings, which can involve installing security systems and restricting access to decades-old schools to make sure a person who wants to be inside has good intentions.

Whether a school building is old or new, designers and architects with SHP Leading Design also work with first responders so they can know how a building is organized in the event of an act of violence.